A New York Times Bestseller * An Amazon Best Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice * A Time Best Book for Summer Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed–until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the … banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.
Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes–and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.
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I loved reading about the women pilots!
The decade between the mid-1920’s and the mid-1930’s has often been called the Golden Age of aviation. Starting with Charles Lindbergh’s vaunted flight across the Atlantic, the limits of aviation were put on display for the world to see. In Fly Girls, Keith O’Brien shines a much needed light on the many female pioneers and record makers of this golden age. While the world watch and cheered the men, the women made significant strides to simply be recognized as equals. The narrative of Fly Girls follows five women, each pioneers in aviation, who broke through the barriers and obstacles placed before them to compete on equal terms. These women sacrificed many things – even their lives – in pursuit of their goals, and by the end of the Golden Age, one of them would win the most coveted award in flying at that time.
O’Brien’s choice of the women he follows provides a cross-section of independence and determination to succeed in a male-dominate profession and sport. In the years following the suffrage movement, and the win allowing women the right to vote, many women strove to show that women were the equals of men. This included the fledgling field of aviation, which after the First World War, exploded in popularity. O’Brien’s narrative follows Florence Klingensmith, Ruth Elder, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden as each struggles to set records, and fight the chauvinism inherent in early aviation. Of these five women (and the many others that O’Brien touches on in the book) I only knew about Amelia Earhart. Like most Americans she is the one that seems to fill the history books, even though she may have not been the most skilled of the pilots. She is remembered because she made the most headlines, but many of the others not only paved the way for Earhart, some were better pilots. O’Brien also does a wonderful job of not only showing the struggle the women faced to get even the least bit of recognition, but also highlights America’s passion for all pilots at the time, who routinely pushed the edge of aviation and the limits of their skills and planes. Many men (and women) gave their lives in this pursuit, and O’Brien does a wonderful job of detailing the world of aviation during this Golden Age.
Fly Girls is a informative, entertaining, and exciting read about the history of aviation and the very important role that women played in it. Keith O’Brien’s narrative keeps your interest in the women’s lives, as you struggle along with them in their pursuit of recognition as pilots. More than simply a book of historical facts and figures, we are let into the many personal aspects of the women and the men who either helped or hindered (sometimes both) their struggle for recognition. In the end I cheered along with the many spectators of the 1936 Bendix Air Race as a woman, competing equally with the men, won the most prestigious air race in the nation at that time.
I highly recommend Fly Girls to any reader with an interest in history, including aviation history or the history for women’s rights.
I received an advance copy of the audio book edition of Fly Girls from the publisher in exchange for an honest and fair review. The audio book was narrated by Erin Bennett who did a wonderful job of bringing the past lives of so many people to life. The CDs I listened to had a minor issue of static and clicking on the audio tracks on the first CD, but all of the rest had no problems with the audio quality.
Fly Girls delves into some of the lesser known aspects of the “Golden Age of Flying” from the late 1920s until Amelia Earhart disappeared on her round-the-world flight a decade later. Specifically author Keith O’Brien revisits the history of women pilots during this era, not only Earhart, but many others whose names have long since faded from the national conscience: Ruth Nichols and Louise Thaden, Ruth Elder and Florence Klingensmith, with plenty of ink devoted as well to that most famous flier, Miss Earhart.
O’Brien does justice to each of these women, and Fly Girls works as a min-biography for a half dozen of the earliest women pilots. More crucially, O’Brien examines the prejudices these early pilots faced, including the rather preposterous regulation against flying immediately before, during, or after menstruation. Unfair, no doubt, but not terrifying. No, the terrifying risks were borne by all pilots, male and female alike, and again and again O’Brien documents the horrifying results of early planes, rudimentary airfields, and nascent navigation.
Frequently these crashes occurred at the National Air Races, an annual exhibition of the finest pilots and fastest planes, and attendance at which often outdrew the World Series. (I lost track of the fatalities somewhere in the middle years.)
Part history of flight, part women’s history, Fly Girls is ultimately a look at an entire era – the zeitgeist, the mores, the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat. In that sense, it serves as a reminder of the sacrifices early pioneers in any discipline must make.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/09/fly-girls-how-five-daring-women-defied.html)
Very good book. A lot of information.
This book reflects the dedication as well as, the service, by female pilots, in World War II, resulting in movement of valuable airplanes throughout the country, allowing men to be free to fight the battles abroad. A must read for those who share an interest, in some of what went on, in the background, in WWII